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Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

reuters.com

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Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#111

Post by watermelon0 »

adrr wrote: post #55
newacct583 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even small organizations, or individuals. Our phones storage is uniformly encrypted by default now and have been for several years. There's absolutely no reason that Windows installs and Linux distros should offer unencrypted storage as anything but a hidden option for experts. That said: there's no particular reason to think this laptop wasn't encrypted.

Because it doesn’t matter to most people outside of a business setting. Forgetting your password and losing your backup key is a bigger risk especially some backup drive of pictures/videos.

You can always store disk encryption password in iCloud or Microsoft account. Actually, macOS and Windows don't even allow you to enable disk encryption, without either storing the password in a cloud/filesystem, or printing it out.

Of course, this doesn't help you if the police or the government is after you, but that's irrelevant for 99,99+% of people.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#112

Post by autocorr »

newacct583 wrote: post #25
walrus01 wrote: post #20

One of the reasons why a blanket full disk encryption policy and encrypted data-at-rest policy is needed in large organizations. Laptops go missing and get stolen all the time.

Or even small organizations, or individuals. Our phones storage is uniformly encrypted by default now and have been for several years. There's absolutely no reason that Windows installs and Linux distros should offer unencrypted storage as anything but a hidden option for experts. That said: there's no particular reason to think this laptop wasn't encrypted.

Just an anecdote, but I installed Debian on my laptop two years and I was impressed with how easy full-disk encryption with LUKS was to setup. All it took was checking the box and creating a password. No issues so far! It definitely does seem like something that could be opt-out rather than opt-in.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#113

Post by threatofrain »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #58
koalaman wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

"you can make *ignorant* people believe just about any message if you deliver it a certain way and often enough." I don't want to be 'that guy' but even smart and well informed people can be manipulated with the right techniques. Anyone can be manipulated and none of us should ever think we are immune. We're all human.

You can make a poker player believe anything but I’m not surprised that some people can’t break even.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#114

Post by trianglem »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #27
ABeeSea wrote: post #21

The fed were tipped off by an ex. The most telling part of the terrorist attack on the capital is how many family members, coworkers, and acquaintances couldn’t wait to turn them in. There was a story this morning about a wife turning in her husband for threatening to shoot their children if the children “snitched.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/capitol-rioter-guy-reffitt-thr...

Somebody has to fill out the left half of the bell curve.

That’s the qanon side of the curve

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#115

Post by pnw_hazor »

shostack wrote: post #107
Johnie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’d be very easy for a foreign agent to sneak in with the crowd. In one of the latter videos on that thread, it looked like she was directing/encouraging people to push forward.

I read a comment/tweet somewhere akin to, "if you run a foreign intelligence agency and did not have agents inside during this, you should be fired."

Sounds like a good way to blow your cover. Much better to play it cool and get hired into the target agencies/offices directly.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#116

Post by swirepe »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #69
saladgnu054 wrote: post #60

Can we say "the Russian government" or "the Russian secret services" or something similar? Why always this tone with the Russians, the Russians are wonderful people, like everyone else trying to live their lives with the hand they were dealt. Am I the only one that sees how offensive this trope is to about 150 million people?

While I agree with your general sentiment, in this specific case the person appeared motivated to literally just sell the laptop to some Russian people, with the expectation that they had the ability to resell the laptop to the Russian government. The people who broke into the Capitol and stole things are not the smartest or most well-connected people. More details are available in some of the court docs that are flo…

>The people who broke into the Capitol and stole things are not the smartest or most well-connected people.

Imagine you stole Putin's personal laptop, the secret special one with no password that he hides under his pillow. If you email info@state.gov and offer to sell it to them, it auto-replies with a warrant. They'll definitely take it, but they will not pay for it.

Better to sell it to some random American who thinks they won the lottery.

Edited to add: I guess a Russian warrant wouldn't mean much in the article's case. She basically paid a premium to not deal with a government.

Edited to add: best to not steal it in the first place, obviously. Obviously don't steal state secrets, don't loot your capitol, and just be cool.

I'm trying to get into her headspace so I can understand her. I think what she did was bad.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#117

Post by godelski »

type0 wrote: post #87
godelski wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They wouldn't write "tried to sell the computer to Jews". No, because they'd say "tried to sell the computer to Israelis." Jews are a race and Russians/Israelis are citizens of a country.

There is a distinction https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossiyane

Well TIL that there is a Russian ethnicity. But I will add that colloquially no one says that.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#118

Post by mensetmanusman »

dehrmann wrote: post #80
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somebody has to fill out the left half of the bell curve.

Makes you wonder what smarter people were able to accomplish that we haven't or will never hear about.

The original american revolution was almost entirely propaganda driven by the elite and succeeded in convincing the population to move on.

Re: Woman may have tried to sell Pelosi computer device to Russians, FBI says

#119

Post by ABeeSea »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #19
SpaceRaccoon wrote: post #3

> to Russians I don't understand why they say "to Russians" or "to the Russians" instead of "to Russian intelligence". It's like being Russian is the crime itself. They wouldn't write "tried to sell the computer to Jews".

We Russians are go-to Hollywood villains because no Russian is ever offended by this portrayal of Russians in media. Also, we are simply always up to no good. I've been influencing the US presidential elections for a few years, with mixed results.

It might be because the country is run by a dictator who is intent on crippling the US’s diplomatic and economic power.
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